


In Confidence

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: Whole New Vision [5]
Category: Primeval
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-16
Updated: 2009-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3173002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blade and Lorraine might be plunging back into the same nightmare that nearly killed them both on several occasions, but at least the Powers That Be managed to schedule it for a half-term.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Confidence

            It was the Friday before half term; therefore, the school was rowdy with gleeful kids and relieved teachers. Blade waded through the morass until he found his daughter, sitting impatiently in her classroom, waiting to be collected; he smiled when he saw her, and she bounced out of her chair and leapt into his arms. “Daddy!”

 

            He laughed, and hugged her tightly, then let her slide to the floor and reached over to shake hands with her teacher, and was then towed out of the school by Carys Joy Richards, eight years old and determined to get as far away as possible from anything resembling a classroom right now.

 

            They caught the Tube back to the family home, Carys hanging on his hand and the rail and swaying happily with the movement of the train, explaining what she’d done in the half-day she’d spent at school, yelling to be heard above the noise. It wasn’t a long journey, even allowing for delays, and passed quickly; so did the walk from the Tube station to the house. It was a gorgeous sunny autumn day with a bite of cold in the air, and Carys was off school and he was off work and Lorraine had promised to finish her work and be home by five, and there had been a steel in her voice which suggested that this would actually happen. He was happy. 

 

            Mrs. Neill from the other end of the street called to them, and Blade made slightly stilted polite conversation for a couple of minutes while Carys turned shy and silent beside him – faced with relative strangers, she was not an outgoing child – and the memory of his last discussion with Lorraine on the subject of Mrs. Neill ran through his head, making it extremely difficult to keep a straight face.

 

            ( _“She fancies you,” Lorraine had said, giggling helplessly. “I can see it! First it was the blocked gutter, now it’s a dodgy boiler, and oh god the makeup and the dress and you could just **tell** she didn’t expect you to bring me-“_

_“You did it too,” Blade pointed out a little crossly. “The socket, the sink, that stuck drawer-“_

_“Yes, but not on purpose,” Lorraine said, kissing him soothingly and spoiling it by collapsing with laughter halfway through. “Or only once, anyway. And you weren’t married then... Oh God... her **face**... Do you think she’s getting a kick out of trying to seduce a man she knows is taken? A sort of safe high, because she knows it’ll never happen?”_

_He had laughed too, because it **was** funny. Sort of._ )

 

            Then they were outside the front door, and Blade found his keys and unlocked it, and was very surprised to find his wife sitting in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee and talking on her Blackberry. She darted a glance and a smile at him. “-Hello, love. Not you, sir, my lawful wedded husband. Hi, sweetie,” she added, kissing the top of her daughter’s head as Carys hugged her round the waist and ran to kick off her shoes and drop her schoolbag. “No, sir, my husband has just arrived from bringing our daughter back from school. It’s half-term. I know Liz, Jamie and Nicky have been out of school long enough for you to have forgotten how the holiday system works, but... No, I will not call you James. Habit, sir.”

 

            Puzzled, Blade fished for a piece of scrap paper and a pen and wrote _Lester?_ on it before showing it to Lorraine. She nodded, took the pen and added _explain later_ to the piece of paper.

 

            There were thuds from upstairs. Blade grinned.

 

            Lorraine rolled her eyes. “That, sir, is the sound of my daughter jumping up the stairs- before you draw any invidious comparisons, I would remind you that Liz used to blow up dinosaurs... So, is that all settled? The Mitchells have been contacted? By the Minister? Then I’d better call as well. Now, is this list correct for the people coming-“ She paused, and read off a long list on the table before her. “-Yes? Excellent. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow, sir.” She ended the call, and put the phone down with a sigh. He came and stood behind her, laying his hands on her shoulders, and she leant her head back against him, closing her eyes.

 

            “Were we doing anything important this weekend? Or this half-term, as a matter of fact?”

 

            He racked his brains. “Visiting your family tomorrow. And we’re going to Cornwall, just you and me, Carys’s going to stay with Ditzy and Claire, but that’s next Friday and Saturday. I was going caving with Finn and Ditzy midweek. Apart from that... No. Why?”

 

            “Because if we were,” Lorraine murmured, “we aren’t now.” She stood up and stepped into his arms. “I am so glad I kept that P228. And that my job licenses me to have the damn thing.”

 

            Lester- the Mitchells, who ran the hotel the team had used as a base- the handgun Lorraine kept, but rarely referred to. Pieces began to fall together in Blade’s mind. “The anomalies. Open again?”

 

            “Yes. No. Maybe. Professor Cutter came through one.”

 

            Blade swore quietly.

 

            “Yes. Connor’s machine was only down for about a minute, but it was enough, and Lester thinks that where there can be one blip, there can be more, and he contacted the Minister, who says that Caroline- you remember Caroline Steel? –who monitors this kind of thing now, well, she’s just slapped a report on his desk saying that she thinks anomalies are back. Perhaps operating on a different frequency. On a smaller scale, but... she’s seeing hints. No Helen, but hints.”

 

            “Helen’s dead. I saw her body,” he said, remembering the broken figure in the long-ago, almost pathetic in the anti-climax of her death.

 

            “She travelled in time... is it such a great step to think she might have come into this future? Well, this present, but-”

 

            “No,” he said, thinking, itching for a knife in his hand, “no, it isn’t.” He swore some more, and her arms tightened around him.

 

            “So. Lester’s arranging an emergency conference, hosted by the ever-reliable Mitchells at that Forest of Dean hotel. You’ll probably still get to go caving...”

 

            He grinned. “Probably. Does Lester want you running this thing?”

 

            “In your words, probably.” They relaxed, and Lorraine headed for the kettle. “Tea? I sort of miss the ARC, you know. The camaraderie.”

 

            “Not the nightmares,” Blade said, a statement, not a question.

 

            “Not the nightmares,” Lorraine admitted. “I sometimes think we didn’t have a fighting chance, really. With today’s technology- half of it built by you-” she turned and smiled at him- “well, it might have been better.”

 

            There was a clatter, and Carys appeared abruptly in the kitchen, dressed in jeans and an orange long-sleeved t-shirt. Blade sighed, and swung his daughter off her feet, making her giggle. “What do you think about the Forest of Dean, Carys?”

 

            Carys gave her father a stare which (much to Claire and Lizzie’s amusement when Cara pointed it out) closely resembled Lorraine’s patented ‘I’m not sure I totally understand what you mean, and that may be a good thing’ look. Lorraine rephrased. “Daddy means, do you want to come with me and Daddy to the Forest of Dean this half-term. There’ll be other kids there- Flick and Sam and Robbie at least- and lots of your uncles and aunts. There’ll probably be quite a bit of grown-ups’ talky stuff, but you don’t have to listen or even hang around while it’s happening.”

 

            Carys thought, then nodded, and reached out for her mother. Lorraine smiled, and moved closer, putting her arms around her daughter and her husband and letting her daughter wrap her arms around her chest. She leaned forward and whispered in Blade’s ear. “And I won’t even complain if you bring the knives.”

 

            Blade smiled, recognising the joke, and Carys jabbed Lorraine in the ribs. “What, Mummy?”

 

            “Sorry, sweetheart,” Lorraine said. “Confidential.”

 


End file.
